


Spending the Night

by Sunshines_Fabulous_Legs



Series: Fanfic Friday [29]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Feels, Comfort, Domestic Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Married Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Married Couple, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed, Steve Rogers Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-13 23:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18041066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunshines_Fabulous_Legs/pseuds/Sunshines_Fabulous_Legs
Summary: Bucky and Steve have shared beds dozens of times, for many different reasons. But is there a reason Bucky does this that even he won't admit?





	Spending the Night

As a seventeen-year-old boy, Bucky didn’t realize what he felt towards Steve was anything more than friendship. He hadn’t realized just what it meant when his heart seemed to pause whenever he saw Steve. A feeling that kept him from crawling through Steve’s window for a minute, even though he had already done this dozens of times.  
  
When Bucky finally did, Steve faintly smiled at him. “How you doin’?” Bucky asked.  
  
Steve let out a short laugh, which turned into a cough. “How do I look?”  
  
Bucky almost thought that Steve would always look beautiful no matter what. But why would he think that? “You look like you’ve had better days.”  
  
“Really?” Steve rolled his eyes, his breathing labored. “Is that all?”  
  
“Shut up,” Bucky said. “Also, scoot over.” Bucky moved towards the bed, but Steve shook his head.  
  
“No, I’ll just get you sick.”  
  
“If I do, that means you’ll be the one crawling through my window.” Bucky lied down next to Steve, their bodies fitting perfectly together. There was nothing odd about this, Bucky told himself. He was there for his best friend after all.  
  


* * *

“Hey!” Steve cried out. “Your hands are freezing.”

“It’s zero degrees out there,” Bucky mumbled into Steve’s back, “of course my hands are freezing.” The moment Bucky had gotten into the sleeping bag with Steve, he had shoved his hands up the other man’s shirt and rested them on Steve’s stomach. Because of the serum, Steve’s body always ran a little hot. Which felt nice as they camped out in the German winter.  
No one had really said anything to Steve or Bucky when they started sleeping next to each other. They did what they had to in order to survive out here, and staying warm during freezing winter nights was just another one of those things.

And that was all they were doing, Bucky had to tell himself. Staying warm.

Steve wiggled, trying to get Bucky’s hands off his bare skin. But soon Bucky’s hands warmed up, and Steve stopped fighting it. They lied there for a few minutes, Bucky breathing in Steve.

“You know,” Steve said, “winter’s going to be ending soon.”

Bucky grunted in response.

“Soon, it’ll be warm around here. We won’t have to sleep together to fight off the cold.”

“Oh. Shame.”

“I dunno, maybe another few weeks until he should stop.”

Bucky mumbled something as he fell asleep Steve’s soldier.

And they did stop sleeping together a few weeks later. Because Bucky fell off the train.

* * *

Even Shuri’s genius couldn’t remove Bucky’s memories as the Winter Soldier. He tried not to focus on them, but his dreams wouldn’t let go of them. Good nights he would wake up several times in a cold sweat. The bad ones he didn’t even want to sleep, even though his body screamed at him for rest.

Those nights he spent several hours sipping at coffee until it had gone cold. With the serum Dr. Zola put into him all those years ago, caffeine didn’t do anything for him. The coffee was more a comfort, something mindless to pass sometime.

It was a night like this that Steve found Bucky sitting at the kitchen table. Steve sat next to Bucky and poured himself a cup, even though it did nothing for him either.  
After a few minutes of silence, Steve said, “Sometimes I have nightmares too.”

Bucky nodded, that sentence saying enough for both of them.

“So, whatever you need. Whenever you need it, I’m here for you Buck.”

When Bucky finished his cup, he waited until Steve finished his before he asked, “Do you think I could spend the night with you, like old times?”

Steve smiled at him. “Of course.”

For the first time, Bucky didn’t try to come up with any excuses for why he wanted to sleep next to Steve.

* * *

The sight of waking up next to Steve was something Bucky was used to. But waking up next to him like this was something he thought he’d never have.

“Hey,” Steve said as he woke up. He leaned over and kissed the top of Bucky’s head. “Morning beautiful.”

Bucky murmured a response, his head resting on Steve’s bare chest. Steve in response ran his left hand through Bucky’s hair.

  
The thing Bucky liked most about it was feeling the ring on Steve’s finger.

Bucky grinned at how natural and right this felt. Him and Steve together. He had spent so long trying to rationalize away his love for Steve, and now Bucky didn’t have to. Since they were teenagers, since their days with the Howling Commandos. This was what he wanted all that time.

It had been so long since either one of them had nightmares.


End file.
